Military sex assaults

In response to the March 14 online article by McClatchy reporter Anna Douglas, “Tillis: No VA benefits for Marine veterans who advocated rape, harassment:” It is astounding that Acting Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley and Marine Corps Commandant General Robert Neller made such a big issue out of this “social media issue” and want these soldiers punished.

I agree those veterans who participated in the social-media debacle should be punished, but in fact, there is a much bigger problem in our military than the Department of Defense and each military service will openly discuss.

Not once did Stackley and Neller talk about “male-on-male rape.”

We openly accept that men have sex with women, whether consensual or not.

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According to the DOD’s own report in 2015, “Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military,” on average 38 men a day are reporting a sexual assault incident.

According to DailyMail.co.uk, male-on-male rape in the military is 15 times more prevalent than the Pentagon reports. DailyMail.co.uk also reported that a new study showed an astounding 570 incidents per day; that equates to 180,000 sexual assaults, including 60,000 rapes.

This should be of the highest priority for our military and the Department of Defense to discuss, research how to prevent it, and have a proper treatment plan in place for these veterans and their families to deal with in a clinical environment.